It is more than ironic that an author who for years has been speaking out about the dangers of surveillance and the secret state within the state should be denied entry in the “land of the free and home of the brave.”

This is from an essay by Bulgarian-German writer Ilija Trojanov titled “Revenge for My Protest?” on PEN America’s website, following the writer’s being denied entry into the US from his flight at the airport in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil. Read it, it’s disturbing but sadly not surprising anymore.

What is interesting and more than a little ironic is that next month’s New Literature from Europe festival will take place in New York City and one of its featured guests is none other than the unwelcome Ilja Trojanow (maybe by transliterating his name differently they’re hoping to fool the Dept. of Homeland Security . . . yeah, that will probably work unless some idiot tells tips them off). Seriously though, I have no idea if they’ll be letting him come this time or not.

And the irony: the theme of this year’s 10th anniversary festival is “In Transit”. If they send him back from JFK I at least hope he flew in with Michael Moore and a film crew.